


Unforseen Combination

by autisticblueteam



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Autistic Character, Autistic Character(s), Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 00:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5354318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autisticblueteam/pseuds/autisticblueteam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wash has had a long day. He’d been dealing with fighting soldiers all day, it’s past midnight, and all he really wants to do is go to sleep. However when Caboose comes to his room for comfort after a bad dream, things take an unexpected turn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unforseen Combination

**Author's Note:**

> So this is just shameless Caboosington fluff. I’m not even sorry. Stimming, fluffy talking, cuddles, the works. It’s all here, take it.
> 
> I did learn whilst writing this how Caboose’s speech pattern is a tricky thing to master so that’s a thing.

Washington sighed, dragging a hand down his face as he stood looking at himself in the mirror of his quarters’ bathroom. There were dark circles under his eyes, worry lines in his forehead, and he just looked tired; so to put it simply, he looked just as bad as usual.

Today had been a particularly stressful day. The Feds and News seemed to somehow hate each other more than they had in those first couple of weeks of ceasefire, if that was even possible, and he’d broken up at least half a dozen fights today during training alone. And that didn’t even include his attempts to stop the generals fighting between themselves. Or trying to deal with his usual team’s usual antics, which today included (but were not limited to): Grif stealing food from the mess hall _again_ ; Sarge trying to convince Doyle to replace the city’s nuclear reactor with a diesel powered system and Doyle nearly being too passive to say no; and Tucker trying to hit on random people from both armies.

So yes, today had been a particularly stressful day.

It was well after midnight that he’d made it back to his room and pulled himself out of his armour. He’d showered, changed into something marginally more comfortable, and had now been staring at himself in the mirror for a good ten minutes. His teeth were tugging at the inside of his cheek, and he was grasping the edge of his sink tight enough for his knuckles to go white to stop himself scratching the back of his neck.

He should probably get to bed.

Wash sighed, resolving to do just that when he heard a sound coming from the adjoining bedroom. His muscles tensed immediately, and he held his breath. One hand prised itself away from the sink long enough to grab the pistol that he kept stashed in his bathroom, and with a quiet breath out he silently made his way to the door. He nudged it open, stepping out quickly with his gun held ready.

“Who’s there?!” He called, his jaw tense and his hands shaking slightly.

He kept his gun trained ahead, jerking suddenly to aim towards his bed as the mass of blankets began to move− Wait, what?

“Washingtub!” The mound said, as the mound became a six foot two inches tall pair of legs draped with a big blue blanket standing on his bed, the top brushing the ceiling, “You are here!”

Wash lowered the gun, “ _Caboose_?”

“Yes! I am Caboose,” The blanket said, two arms suddenly appearing out of the sides, “…I cannot see you Washingtub.”

Wash sighed softly, but relaxed. He placed the gun down on the side, running a hand through his hair, “That’s because your blanket is over your head, buddy.”

“Oh! Yes!” Caboose said, though he made no effort to fix it.

Wash shook his head, walking over to the bed and standing up on it next to the other soldier, ignoring the way it creaked under the weight. He grabbed the blanket and carefully tugged it off of Caboose’s head, leaving the man with his brown hair sticking up at odd angles and looking somewhat dazed by the sudden light.

“That better?” Wash asked, draping the blanket over Caboose’s shoulders.

Caboose nodded, “Yes. Now I can see you.”

“Good,” He took Caboose’s wrist in his hand and gave a gentle tug as he moved to sit on the bed, coaxing him to follow. Caboose resisted for a moment before understanding, when he quickly joined Washington sat down, “What’re you doing up Caboose? It’s past midnight.”

“I had a dream. Y’know, the bad kinda dream,” Caboose said, shrugging and wrapping his blanket tight around himself, “So I thought, I bet Agent Washingtub will be awake! And then I got up, and here I am!”

Wash smiled slightly, “Yes, here you are. Did you want to talk about your bad dream again buddy?”

It wasn’t the first time Caboose had come to him in the middle of the night, so Washington figured now that he should have known better than to get so worried when he heard noise. Caboose had been having bad dreams for a while now, and Wash seemed to have become his first port of call. He didn’t mind, too much. He _was_ almost always awake at this time of night anyway.

“Yes,” Caboose said simply, nodding quickly.

Wash nodded, shuffling towards the head of the bed a little more and patting his lap. Caboose’s head was rested there within moments, his blanket wrapped around him as he curled up on his side. Wash’s fingers laced into Caboose’s hair, combing through it gently.

“Go on then buddy.”

“Wellll,” Caboose said, his brow furrowing with concentration as he also grinned a relaxed, goofy grin, making for an interesting combined facial expression, “I was there. And I was here. In this big city place. And everyone was here, and we were all _super_ happy and there was no fighting and we were all the best of friends! But um. There was um, something wrong? Felt wrong. And then I realised that you had gone away again, and it made me very sad.”

The younger man was relaxing more by the moment, sinking into his blanket as Washington combed his fingers through his shoulder length hair. Wash, however, frowned slightly as he finished his description.

“I’m sorry, Caboose. That would be a very bad dream for you,” He said, brushing a strand of hair from Caboose’s face. It had been resting on his nose, tickling it and making him scrunch up his face, “But don’t worry, Church is still here this time. He’s just with Carol−”

“What? Oh no, Washingtub! Church wasn’t gone! You were gone!” Caboose said, looking up at the freckled man with confused eyes and furrowed brows, “Did I say the wrong word again? Aw. I am trying my best too!”

Wash’s eyes widened, “…No, Caboose. No. Now that I think about it, that’s exactly what you said.”

Caboose beamed, “Oh good! No. No, I am happy that tiny Church is back but no, no. I was sad that Washingtub had gone away again. Like I was sad that you had gone away before! I do not want you to go away again.”

And he nuzzled into Washington’s lap, relaxing with his goofy grin still in place as Wash continued playing with his hair on auto-pilot. Caboose seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Wash was now staring at the wall with his widened eyes, the corners of his lips twitching slightly.

Caboose had a bad dream about _him_ going away? Not Church, his ‘best friend’: Washington. Caboose really didn’t want him to go away.

After a long moment, Wash managed to compose himself enough to speak, “We-Well, Caboose, I promise I’m not going anywhere. It was just a bad dream.”

“Yes. I know. I am glad that Wash is not going to go anywhere,” Caboose said, nodding and leaning his head into Washington’s touch at the same time, “Because I would not like that.”

“No… Neither would I, Caboose.”

Caboose turned over in his lap, rolling so he was facing Wash, “You would also be sad if you had to go away?”

“Yeah, Caboose. Of-Of course I would be,” Wash swallowed hard, feeling his heart practically skip a beat at the puppy-dog like look Caboose was now giving him. His hips began to wiggle slightly where he sat, and he was much too distracted to stop the instinctual movement, “I don’t want to leave any of you. Leave you.”

Caboose seemed satisfied, relaxing into the calming touch of Washington’s fingers in his hair again, “Washingtub are you happy? Because you are doing the wiggling thing.”

“What? Oh,” Wash coughed, forcing himself to sit still, “Sorry, Caboose.”

“You do not have to stop Washingtub! If you are happy then you should do the wiggling thing,” Caboose said, nodding determinedly, “I do not mind.”

“It’s okay, Caboose. I don’t want to accidentally, um,” He coughed again, “ _wiggle_ you off of my lap.”

“That would be unfortunate.”

Wash smiled, a quiet chuckle slipping out, “Yes it would be, wouldn’t it? We wouldn’t want that.”

“No,” Caboose said, and suddenly he was sitting up. Wash jumped, slipping his hand away quickly so it wouldn’t tug on his scalp, “We wouldn’t! So I will sit up and then Wash can do the wiggly thing!”

“You don’t need to do that Caboose,” Wash said, though his smile grew, “Really, it’s okay. You can lay back down.”

Caboose folded his arms, still holding the corners of his blanket in his hands, “Nuh-uh.”

“Caboose,” Wash said, trying to sound stern but his tone coming out more amused than anything, “Come on Caboose, you can lay back down.”

Caboose jutted out his bottom lip, shaking his head, “Nuh-uh.”

“Caboose−”

And then Wash found himself cut off by a peck on the lips.

Wash froze, his grey eyes widening again as he tried, and failed, to get words out. After a moment he gave up, just staring slack-jawed at Caboose who was beaming. It had been a very, very long time since he’d felt that sensation. A very, very long time. For a moment he even wondered if Caboose realised what he’d just done, and then upon really taking in that absolutely delighted expression on the man’s face cursed himself internally for even thinking he didn’t. Of course he did. Caboose knew exactly what he was doing.

After a long period of staring, trying to think of words to say, Washington opened his mouth again with the full intention of saying words. However, all that came out was a noise no better described than being a cat-like whine.

His cheeks flushed red.

Caboose however was grinning, still grasping his blanket as his hands began flapping at his sides. Without the grin leaving his face for a moment he wrapped Washington up in the biggest, happiest hug he could muster. Wash’s cheeks only got redder, but he didn’t resist for a moment as the blanketed arms wrapped around him and he was promptly dragged down to lay on the bed. Caboose pulled him against his chest, tucking the shorter man into the curl of his body he was wrapped around him protectively.

There was a pause, and then Wash coughed, “Well… that was an embarrassing noise,” He said, resting his head against Caboose’s chest.

Caboose shook his head, “Ah, no! That was a cute noise. Washingtub made a very cute noise.”

“If you say so, Caboose,” Wash said, nuzzling his head against Caboose. This was nice. Unexpected, but nice. He sighed a content sigh, closing his eyes.

Then Caboose’s fingers laced through his hair, twiddling it gently and almost petting him, and Wash felt himself positively melt. Before he even registered what he was doing he leant his hand into Caboose’s attentions and began to purr, relaxing completely and feeling the vibration of the sound flow through him.

Caboose beamed, twiddling the blonde hair between his fingers, enjoying the sensation of the soft strands and the sound of Wash’s purrs. Wash’s head was heavy against his chest and the blankets were wrapped around both of them, holding them close together atop the covers of Wash’s bed.

“I am feeling much better now,” He said, nodding and flopping his head against Wash’s pillow. He watched Wash’s face with a grin on his face, “Does the purring mean you are happy feeling?”

Wash nodded, unable to form words as the combined sensation of his own purring and the gentle playing with his hair turned him into putty. He’d always known Caboose liked to play with people’s hair as much as he liked his hair being played with, and he’d also always known that he himself purred like this in certain situations, but this was an… unforeseen combination. An unforeseen combination he was, nonetheless, completely okay with. _More_ than okay with, actually.

He could get used to this.

“Good! I am glad!” Caboose said, tucking Wash more into the safety of his chest, “I think that we should do the sleeping thing now, Wash.”

“In… in a minute Caboose,” Wash said, even his words coming out as purrs now.

“Okay!”

Caboose fell silent, twirling Wash’s hair between his fingers and brushing his them through it, enjoying the way it tickled and the way Wash’s purrs fluctuated. The blanket around them was thick and heavy and that combined with Wash’s weight against his chest added an extra layer of comfort that brought back his goofy, relaxed grin.

Wash could feel the vibration of his purrs in his chest, and he could feel himself relaxing more and more by the moment. He hadn’t had attention like this in a long time, if ever. Within minutes he could feel himself starting to dose off, his purrs fading to a quiet, continuous noise as he fell asleep.

Yeah, he could definitely get used to this.


End file.
